The government’s failure to properly fund schools has reached a tipping point in the province’s French-language school division, where the board has been forced to delay payday for teachers. The extreme measure comes on the heels of a round of deep cuts in those schools.

In a letter from the teachers’ association to its members, teachers at Conseil des Écoles Fransaskoises schools are told the board wants to delay June’s payday until the next funding deposit from the government. The request comes on the heels of $4.4 million in cuts at French-language schools – laying off teaching assistants and support workers and cutting programming.

The government voted down a bill that would have put basic standards back into seniors care.

The Residents in Care Bill of Rights Act was voted on in the Legislature today. NDP MLAs voted unanimously for the private member’s bill put forward by Danielle Chartier, NDP heath critic, while government MLAs voted against the bill.

Nurses who want to speak out against the government’s Lean experiment in health care say they are being bullied, intimidated and even punished. NDP Leader Cam Broten is demanding the premier step in immediately to end the culture of fear forced on nurses, investigate the claims and guarantee protection for nurses who need to speak out to protect patients from harm.

It was revealed through the media late Friday that nurses are being told that they have to support Lean, or risk recrimination including professional consequences and even being “put in a time-out room,” according to publicly reported comments from the president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), Tracy Zambory.

Concerning job cuts in health care, social services and education have continued over the last month, now reaching 4,000 jobs lost over just one year in those sectors.

Friday’s monthly report on employment from Statistics Canada shows 2,200 jobs have been cut from the education sector and 1,800 jobs have been cut from health care and social services. The unemployment rate overall increased to 4.5 per cent, up from 3.9 per cent a year ago.

“The NDP has been very concerned about this government’s move to have fewer workers on the front lines of basic services – especially health care and education,” said NDP Deputy Leader and finance critic Trent Wotherspoon. “We’re hearing about terrible short-staffing in hospitals, and far too few professionals like educational assistants in schools throughout the province. Seeing Statistics Canada numbers show a declining trend is really a cause for concern.”